I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.
Edgar Allen Poe

The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
- H. L. Mencken

Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so
-Bertrand Russell

What I have been telling you, from alpha to omega, what is the one great thing the sigil taught me — that everything in life is miraculous. For the sigil taught me that it rests within the power of each of us to awaken at will from a dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious useless little habits, to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in its exquisite wonderfulness. If the sigil were proved to be the top of a tomato-can, it would not alter that big fact, nor my fixed faith. No Harrowby, the common names we call things by do not matter — except to show how very dull we are ...
-James Branch Cabell

November 17, 2012 - 11:08 a.m.

The Second Friday on the Third Friday

I'm finally getting to my storage unit today. Thanks Lori not LORi and Joe. That does mean I have to start writing. I've been keeping very busy so I have things to write about. One of these days I'll finish writing about NERFA

One of my students arranged to take a make up exam and have the department admin proctor it at 11:00. The student got there at 10:30. I got there at 11:25 and the Admin hadn't shown up. I proctored it myself. if the student had needed the full time he wouldn't have been able to finish. The Admin didn't show up till after noon. That just isn't right and he's done this too many times before. The student had a good excuse for missing the test, he went back to Saudi Arabia to get married. I told him Mazel Tov. I figured he'd figure it out because the Arabic would be similar to the Hebrew. It wasn't. I asked how to say "Good Luck" in Arabic and it was totally different. Not that I can remember what it was. I'm lucky I remember the Hebrew. Of course I've been using that my entire life. It's what I always say when people get married. The inner Jew comes out at times.

After school I finally made it to Pathmark. I've been meaning to go for ages. I went the Sunday after the blackout ended and it was closed. So what did I find when I got there? The store is closing. they have sold out of most things including most of what I wanted to buy. I really need bacon. It is more than 40% cheaper there than at Gristides. I might end up going to Pathmark in Brooklyn for some things. Does anyone know a cheap supermarket in Manhattan?

Last night I went to the Post-NERFA inaccurately named Second Friday show at Two Moons in Park Slope. That's the show that Bev Grant and Carolann Solebello host every month. It couldn't be on the Second Friday this month because of NERFA. This was a special fundraiser for Two Moons. I could tell you who the guests were but I'd rather show you. The order of performance was based on pulling names from a hat. Here are the names:


Photo by Mark Allen Berube

This counts as a home game for me. There isn't a group of people I'm more comfortable with than the people at that show, the performers listed plus Felix, Mark and Carolann's son, Fred, Coco's friends John and Honey, and a few more friends of the above. Timbila is a band and includes Nora who I had just met the night before at Zoë Lewis's show. Felix drew the names from the hat and read them. He is pretty much the coolest six year old there is. I want to be him when I grow up. He joined Carolann on her last song. He looked Sinatra at the mic. It's clearly the natural place for him to be.

I've often said that Mark writes the songs I'd write if I could write songs. Here's proof of that he wrote a song about the Higgs Boson.


The evening was filled with new songs. Paul had one, Jesus Candle that is totally unlike anything else I've heard by him. I loved it. It's great when a songwriter shows another side. Those songs are often the most requested.

Carolann had a great new song that Felix had to help her out with the words.

Honor had a new song about sex. Halfway through it hit her that Felix was in the room. People should always sing funny songs about sex with six-year-olds in the room. It makes them even funnier.

I love a venue where I have a usual seat. I always take the couch though it moves around the room. I like to be comfy. Comfortable people, comfortable furniture, great music, a cappuccino and a chocolate brownie are the recipe for happiness.

After the show I walked to the subway with Jeremiah, Nora, and the other woman from Timbila though I only shared a train with them for one stop. The one fly in the ointment was that I hadn't had dinner. I ate at my late night restaurant, Lucky Burger. I never actually get a burger there. It's always the chicken.

When I got home an odd thing happened. I had just spent an evening with many of my favorite people but I was lonely. I know why even though I can't discuss it here. Let's just say that people are complicated, including me. There's lonely and there's lonely and there are friends and there are friends. I always appreciate what I have but that doesn't mean there are things that I don't have but still want.

One more thing before I go. Fred showed me how to find the video I took of Beth Wood's toes. Yes her toes. They are very entertaining. Don't believe me just watch the video. It was taken at On Your Radar on Tuesday. See the exciting things you miss if you don't go.


I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge:
please hold me accountable.





Memories: Not that Horrid Song - May 29, 2018
Wise Madness is Now In Session - May 28, 2018
The NFL and the First Amendment - May 27, 2018
On The Road Again - May 26, 2018
Oliver the Three-Eyed Crow - May 25, 2018



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Horvendile November 17, 2012
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